I recently bought a Sansa Clip Zip, which I have so far been very satisfied with - not least because it has nice, tactile buttons rather than a fiddly touchscreen. But I have not yet figured out exactly how synchronization works. I use Windows Media Player. I have two questions.

1. How do I keep the media player from synchronizing every mp3 it can find onto my player. I don't want to have every piece of mediocre music that i have collected throughout the ages onto my player.

When in the synchronization window, I drag the files I want to synchronize into the list on the right. Those files are synchronized, but then it goes on, sometimes invisibly it seems, to synchronize a lot more. How do I prevent this?

2. How do I control whether the files are synchronized in the internal meory or on the memory card? Some of the files I have synchronized have been stored twice over, one for each memory device.

… 1. How do I keep the media player from synchronizing every mp3 it can find onto my player. …

Very few here use WMP because it’s flawed in more ways than one, but I bet it’s in the settings because I’ve read others have un-ticked that box. Most abi members connect the clip in MSC mode and just drag & drop files to it. Some of the more popular media players members use you can see here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buttonguy

When in the synchronization window, I drag the files I want to synchronize into the list on the right. Those files are synchronized, but then it goes on, sometimes invisibly it seems, to synchronize a lot more. How do I prevent this?

If you are staying with WMP, you’ll have to learn the settings. It would help to read the users manual or a tutorial.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buttonguy

2. How do I control whether the files are synchronized in the internal meory or on the memory card? Some of the files I have synchronized have been stored twice over, one for each memory device. …

Only way to see both drives is to connect in MSC mode, to do that you’ll have to change it in the clip settings before you connect

WMP is frequently used because it comes with Windows. That doesn't make it good, just convenient. It can work fairly well but there's settings that aren't intuitive and sometimes hard to find.

I've helped a few others with WMP. If you do an Advanced Search with my name and the words "Windows Media Player" you can find some of the times I wrote about some of the settings. I'd sort those ascending by date. I haven't had to help anyone with WMP recently.

One of the times I did is here http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...ad.php?t=60361 That one was about mystery deletions but where those settings are is the same place you'll want to start. I don't have it configured at the moment so I won't be able to help by checking my settings like I did then.

WMP, like just about every sync software, sees two separate addresses when it syncs. There's no way fo it to know what it put on the internal drive doesn't need to be placed on the external drive for a playlist to sync. If you put the same files on playlists for both the internal and external drives it sends what needed to make those playlists work. The only way I know to avoid that is to not include the same files for playlists on the different drives.

I eventually figured out how to stop the autosyncing. There was an option to "end partnership" or something like that. But now that I thought everything was allright, I have a different problem. But I'll make a separate thread for that.

Glad you got that part of it straightened out. Sorry I couldn't be more specific but there's no way I'm opening the WMP can of worms on this machine. WalkGood was being diplomatic when he said WMP is flawed. To be honest my opinion is that WMP flat out sucks compared to decent sync software like MediaMonkey, MusicBee or even Winamp.

The one person I knew that insisted on using WMP finally gave up when it lost it's settings one time too many and trashed a number of playlists they had spent a lot of time making. They tried a number of other software but liked MediaMonkey for it's interface. Now that I've learned how to speed it up they tell me it's all they use.